The present invention relates to pacemaker stimulation leads.
At the present time, in a stimulation lead, only the head of the lead may receive electric stimulation. The head of the lead being inserted into the pacemaker, it is only accessible when the lead is disconnected and removed from the pacemaker.
During replacement of a pacemaker, the stimulation lead is practically always kept. The operation consists in loosening a screw providing pacemaker lead contact, removing the lead from the pacemaker, inserting it into the new pacemaker and tightening the screw on the head of the lead and finally reimplanting the lead and pacemaker under the skin.
This operation may take several tens of seconds.
Now, as soon as the screw is loosened, the patient is no longer stimulated. That is not serious if the patient keeps his own spontaneous cardiac rhythm, but some patients, called "dependent" have no spontaneous cardiac rhythm. The patient is then in cardiac arrest from the moment when the screw of the old pacemaker is loosened until the moment when the screw of the new pacemaker again provides contact with the stimulation lead.
In a dependent patient, this operation is difficult, even dangerous.
The object of the invention is to overcome this serious drawback by providing a lead designed so as to ensure continuity of the stimulation of the patient, particularly during replacement of his pacemaker.